When Stephen Orr Spurrier was in the process of winning the 1966 Heisman Trophy at Florida — 30 years before he’d coach a Heisman winner, Danny Wuerffel, in 1996 — a sportswriter at the Atlanta Constitution wrote, “Blindfolded, with his back to the wall, with his hands tied behind him, Steve Spurrier would be a two-point favorite at his own execution.”
That memorable line, authored nearly half a century ago, said so much about the essence of Spurrier as a competitor and as a thinker. Clever and creative, but often stubborn, Spurrier has been a natural fit for college football. The sport welcomes creativity in a way the NFL — culturally — rarely has. It has enabled Spurrier to put himself on the Mount Rushmore of SEC coaches, alongside Bear Bryant, Johnny Vaught, and Robert Neyland. (If you had to take four, it would be those four. Nick Saban needs to win a couple more SEC titles to displace Neyland.)
Spurrier put his “Fun and Gun” stamp on the University of Florida. A decade later, he realized that zone-read concepts were the best way to use Connor Shaw’s diverse assortment of talents. He’s been able to adjust in the college game as a player, coordinator, and head coach. Yes, he did have Dan Snyder as an owner in the pros, but to be honest, his style and approach just didn’t cut it with the Washington Redskins, and it would be disingenuous to suggest that Spurrier didn’t make it in the NFL because of other people. He didn’t make it because he didn’t come particularly close to finding solutions to his problems on the field. He failed in D.C., not anyone else.
In college, though, from 1966 to the present moment, whenever Steve Spurrier has found himself in a bind, he’s found a way out.
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